Usually, an elevator is installed within a vertical shaft, which is part of a building structure or connected rigidly to the building structure, so that it forms one unit with the building structure. The shaft is manufactured from concrete, metal, glass, or a combination of these materials and represents a heavy, as well as expensive, building element. However, the shaft is absolutely necessary in order to protect the cables connected to the car from the effects of weather, especially moisture, because moisture negatively affects the friction between the cables and the associated driving wheel. To avoid an expensive shaft in an elevator being arranged in the open, it is known to move the elevator car with a lifting piston directly, or in connection with, cables under a gear transmission ratio of 2:1 in the vertical direction. In such an elevator, however, the lifting height is greatly limited and the speed of the car may not exceed 1 meter per second.
The problem addressed herein is to create an elevator having a cable driven car and vertical guide rails, so that the elevator may be operated in the open using a simple structure and providing greater safety.